Part 1 of a Beach Glass Commission

This is part I of a multi-piece commission that I am working on. This is the first time that I have ever taken a piece of beach glass and drilled it briolette style. This piece of glass is thick enough to allow the drilling to be done. I drilled it first on one side half-way, then came in from the other side half-way.


The wire work is adapted from a free tutorial by Eni Oken at http://www.enioken.com/jewelry/036briowrap.pdf

The pendant is then paired with a doubled leather cord with a wrapped clasp that matches the detail of the wire wrapped pendant detail.


One of the advantages of this method is that the cord itself serves as part of the clasp of the necklace. The other advantage is that it allows for interchangeable pendants. This is a technique that I evolved myself. I usually use thinner leather than what is used for single strand necklaces, for a better looking and hanging necklace.


This necklace is about 16 1/2" long.

Modifying a custom bracelet to make it longer

This is a multi-strand bracelet fashioned out of sterling silver. Amethyst, lapis, rough sapphire, Tibetan quartz crystals, freshwater pearls, abalone and sterling pieces make up the "charms" of the bracelet.

This bracelet was commissioned by my brother for his girlfriend. He gave me a budget and then let me design the piece according to what I already know about her style.

It didn't take long at all for the design of the piece to come together. I knew right away that I would be working with deep blue and purple hues. She has blue eyes that seem to verge on indigo to me. She favors deep hues in her dress.

There is a very oceanic quality to the piece, deep inky water under a waning moon.

When she got the bracelet, it turned out that it was not quite long enough. A charm bracelet needs to have a little space and movement on the wrist. And Amber is a little bigger boned than I. So I had to make it longer in such a way that it would be integrated into the design of the bracelet without looking "added onto". This is the piece as it was originally designed:


I decided to to lengthen it with the same materials out of which the dangles of the bracelet had been made. The pearl had to be drilled to make the hole bigger to accommodate the 22 gauge wire. Then I put the nice Tibetan quartz crystal on the other side. Then so that the links transition well with the rest of the design of the bracelet, I added the respective rough sapphire and amethyst dangles at each side.

Trading baubles for other baubles

Sunday at the Artoberfest Art Fair, I scored a couple of new rings from another artist who was also at the fair. Her name is Christina Root and she has a shop at www.christinaroot.etsy.com. I first found the black goddess ring, then at her urging, I also selected the red raku ring. She then picked out a pair of earrings that I had made in exchange for the rings. Artist barter is awesome! It allowed me to expand my collection of big fabulous rings.

A profile in creative challenges

This necklace was a special commission for a friend. She had the teardrop shaped stone (amethyst, I am pretty sure) that was mounted in a very simple four-prong gold frame for a necklace. This is a piece with sentimental value to her, as it was given to her by her grandmother. But she wanted something original done with it, since it was a very standard (read boring) setting for the stone.

I took the stone out of its setting and it sat on my bench in my studio for a while (ok, a long while) as I worked on other things. Then one day as I was glancing at it, it occurred to me that the stone has a face profile carved into the side of it.

I thought that the Net Bezel Pendant design from Eni Oken (www.enioken.com) would be the best way to work with the piece. I had already done one piece with this design and really liked the results. The only thing was that I did not want to cover the profile of the stone with the wire netting. So I really had to think about how I would resolve that design issue.

I finally decided that I would wrap the netting wire around the wire of row that sits flush with the edge of the pendant on the profile edge. This would serve two purposes: Make the transition to the next row and also create an asymmetrical effect that would help to draw attention to the profile. Then when I finished the pendant, I reinforced the asymmetrical nature further by coiling the bail detail at different levels. It also makes the setting more secure.

I consulted with my friend and she decided that she wanted a long (24”) necklace out of doubled sterling chain. This really accentuates the nice vintage look of the wire pendant work.

This project is a great example of how design challenges are great opportunities for design innovation.